Questionable Content forum
Overview The QC Forums were set up by Jeph in September 2003, just a few weeks after he started the comic. Around March and April 2004, a considerable body of members migrated to the QC forum from the Dumbrella forum, and a fair number of these members are still active today. There are currently over 15,000 registered members, but only a small fraction of these are continuously active; the total number of members who have registered is unknown because the membership list has been pruned of inactive accounts in the past, and there have been many accounts created by spammers. There was an extended period through 2009 and 2010 when the new member registration system didn't work; but that has now been fixed, so new members appear regularly. The forum used to be prominently advertised on the comic pages, but is now linked inconspicuously on the home page only. The forum has developed into two distinct communities - the early community who arrived from elsewhere as a unit and use the forum as a social site, plus those who have become accepted in that group; and those who have joined specifically to discuss the comic. These communities are largely separate, though there are a number of members who are active in both groups. The social part of the forum is highly integrated, and as a result can appear somewhat suspicious of and slow to accept newcomers, though the moderators try to prevent this. The core members of this group mainly know each other well, and from time to time some of them get together in real life, often crossing continents to do so (there are strong contingents in the USA, Canada, Australia, UK and Norway in particular). There are married couples who both contribute to the forum, and also at least one brother and sister who communicate through it. The comic discussion part of the forum has had a more troubled history. As the forum moderators were members of the social group, they neglected the comic discussions which tended as a result to run amok when anything exciting happened in the comic. This led Jeph in time to develop a strong distaste for the comic discussions, which is why he made the link to the forums harder to find; he even considered closing the forums or breaking their link with the comic. Recently the comic forum has been regularly moderated for the first time. This appears to have improved behaviour there considerably, and it is hoped that Jeph is no longer worried about this part of the forum. Structure Moderators As of March 2011, the active global forum moderators are Johnny C, Inlander (Harry), est (Ben), E. Spaceman (Emilio), Trollstormur (Grahame), pwhodges (Paul), and Jeph himself. Jeph and est are also the forum administrators. There are two other administrators behind the scenes, and another global moderator who no longer active. In addition, the QC discission forum has is it cold in here? as a moderator of its own. Recurring threads in this and other forums, and their online descriptions BAND The *ahem* thread - what is this i don't even Guitar Thread - group wanking session Shows - more wanking awkward self-aware makeout zone Photo Thread - for stalking people Pointless Thread - a random assortment of funny crap Relationship Advice - frequently turns into "just do him/her already" Fashion Advice - basically about how Uggs suck Blog Thread - A BLOO BLOO BLOO Drunk Thread Rules Written http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,19315.0.html http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,4161.0.html Unwritten History and culture Role of Jeph Jacques Things that tick off Jeph Based on what's in the forum rules and scattered through various posts, Jeph is troubled by nitpicking, lack of civility between forum participants, unrealistic and obsessive proposed romantic pairings of characters, people whose participation is limited to posting in every discussion how much they hate some character, and having his guests make demands about how the comic will go. Another of his grievances is having to explain some point that he'd expressed clearly in the comic itself. The "Ask Jeph" thread Jeph Jacques has apparently stopped participating in this thread, in favor of answering questions at http://www.formspring.me/jephjacques. Since early February 2011, Formspring answers have stopped because Jacques found the signal-to-noise ratio too low, but he's been accepting questions on Twitter and answering them on Tumblr. Memes and acronyms